Monthly Archives:
October 2016

11

Clinton on 2005 Palestinian elections: ‘If we were going to push for elections, we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win’

Wilson Dizard on

According to a recording obtained by the Observer, in 2006 Hillary Clinton told the editors of the Jewish Press: “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. “And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”

11

Why Standing Rock matters

Nada Elia on

Nada Elia reflects on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation’s defiant resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline and its intersections with other struggles for justice: “Standing Rock “isn’t” about Palestine. Standing Rock “isn’t” about Black Lives. Standing Rock “isn’t” about climate change. Standing Rock is about all of this, and all of us together. But ultimately, Standing Rock matters because it is about the Sioux Nation, and the indigenous people of this land.”

1

Five-year-old Palestinian boy banned from visiting father in Israeli prison

Kate on

Ma‘an reports: “Israeli authorities have banned 5-year-old Ibrahim from visiting his father, Palestinian Muhammad Ahmad Abd al-Fatah Abu Fanunah, in prison, Abu Fanunah’s wife said to Voice of Prisoners (Sawt al-Asra) radio on Sunday. Umm Mahmoud told the radio station that she has also been banned from visiting her husband ever since he was detained on Oct. 22, 2015, calling the Israeli policy of preventing family visits a means to pressure Palestinian prisoners.”

7

Roger Cohen’s epiphany

Phil Weiss and Donald Johnson on

‘One state or two states who cares? What matters is equality’ — NYT columnist Roger Cohen quotes Palestinians on the oppression they experience in Israel and all but states the two-state solution is over.

17

American Express disowns Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters because of pro-Palestinian views (Updated)

Wilson Dizard on

When it comes to aiding Israeli Apartheid, American Express is just another brick in The Wall, according to a new report. Roger Waters, lead singer behind Pink Floyd, lost a multimillion dollar American Express sponsorship for his 2017 US+Them tour after expressing solidarity this month with Palestinian students trying to end Israel’s apartheid system of military occupation using the same protest tactic that helped dismantle South African Apartheid (and, earlier, America’s Jim Crow): Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS.

4

Saban urged Clinton campaign to do negative research on Jeremy Ben-Ami re Israel

Philip Weiss on

Megadonor Haim Saban called Bernie Sanders “bad bad bad” on Israel and urged the Clinton campaign to research James Zogby and Jeremy Ben-Ami’s “awful” statements about Israel to get ‘ammunition’ against Bernie Sanders last winter, according to the latest email released by Wikileaks.

4

A game of cat and mouse in the Jordan Valley

Amitai Ben-Abba on

“Bro, are you out of your mind? Do you wanna get hurt?” the Israeli military bulldozer driver said.

“You know that they don’t have running water in this village?” I asked.

Amitai Ben-Abba shares a story from a day of activity with Ta’ayush, a group of Jewish Israeli solidarity activists who accompany Palestinian villagers in their struggle to survive under military law in the West Bank.

1

How community-based media sparked international activism for Palestinian water rights

Amahl A. Bishara on

Community-based media does not just provide a different perspective from the “mainstream” or “corporate” media — it can also be a means to link grassroots voices with grassroots action. Amahl Bishara explains how a video about water shortages in Aida refugee camp spurred activism in Boston to fight the Israel-Massachusetts Water Partnership.

0

Israel paints fighter jet pink to raise breast cancer awareness while preventing cancer patients in Gaza from receiving treatment

Adam Horowitz on

The U.S. and Israeli air forces are making headlines in October for painting jet fighters pink to raise awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but here is the context for how Israel treats actual cancer patients if they happen to live in the besieged Gaza Strip. Not everyone is buying this most literal example of pinkwashing.

13

Jeffrey Goldberg, anti-Zionist

Philip Weiss on

The Atlantic’s new editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg is ambitious and worldly, and he will carve his name in history and outstrip his rivals by affirming the Atlantic’s abolitionist heritage by abandoning Zionism and coming out for one state with equal rights in Israel and Palestine.

2

Just World Books publishes second edition of ‘The Gaza Kitchen’ featuring new culinary specialties

Annie Robbins on

It’s round two for ‘The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary’ Journey by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, as Just World Books has now published a 2nd edition of the award-winning Palestinian cookbook featuring new epicurean specialties from the distinctive Gazan cuisine. Read an exclusive excerpt on Na’ema Al-Daghma and the Backyard Farm Revolution which includes a recipe for Halwit il Ari’ (Pumpkin Conserve).

18

New campaign uses racist posters to target Palestinian campus activists by name

Wilson Dizard on

Palestinian rights activists on American college campuses have become the target of posters that attempt to smear them as supporters of violence, with a new round of posters calling out students and teachers by name. The posters are the work of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a pro-Israel group that has a history of attempting to intimidate Palestinian activists, especially those in academia.

0

‘Lack of evidence,’ ‘lack of guilt’ –no charges for Israeli guards who killed Palestinian siblings

Kate on

No charges to be filed against civilian guards who shot and killed a Palestinian woman and her brother at the Qalandiya crossing in occupied West Bank in April, Times of Israel reports. Maram Hassan Abu Ismail, 23, and her brother Ibrahim Saleh Taha, 16 — both of occupied Beit Surrif — were killed by guards in April after Abu Ismail allegedly threw a knife at the guards

27

What if the Syria no-fly zone won’t fly?

James North on

The foreign policy elite in Washington seems to be united on imposing a no-fly zone over Syria. But two veterans with hundreds of combat missions between them contend that Assad’s anti-aircraft capabilities are far too robust to permit such an intervention without significant losses and billions in expenditures.

0

Calling someone a ‘Zionist’ is anti-Semitic and abusive, say British lawmakers

Allison Deger on

British lawmakers have said the word “Zionist” as a pejorative “has no place in a civilised society” and recommend considering a victim’s feelings when deciding if a criminal investigation into anti-Semitism should be launched, said an annual report on anti-Semitism published last week by a cross-party group in Parliament.